


Once Upon an Empire

by ShawnMorgan



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Star Wars - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-13
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2018-12-01 13:13:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 20,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11487126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShawnMorgan/pseuds/ShawnMorgan
Summary: A Tie Fighter bomber pilot finds herself crash landed in Storeybrooke. Things begin to deteriorate from there.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a replacement for the original chapter one. It is a little longer and spellchecked better. The Story willow recommence.

Once Upon a time, in a galaxy far far away...

 

The battle had turned swiftly and for the worse; and the flagship Executor, pride of the Imperial Navy had been destroyed, plummeting into the Death Star itself. Alusa Ruyyal herself had barely had the time to register her own shock before the fighter craft’s Identity Friend or Foe system detected three incoming enemies.

Eyes narrowing as the terrorists closed in on her, her hands flicked her controls, concussion missiles were fired, homing in on the rebels even as she spun a complicated spiral through a field of wreckage. Three explosions registered on her control panel shortly after and her lips curled into a predatory smile.

Her satisfaction was short lived though as she felt pressure mount in her mind. She’d been a scant few minutes ahead of the shockwave but now she and her bomber were being flung around as her evasion turned her around.

Alusa manage to come out of her spin, narrowly avoiding careening into the debris left by the destroyed Rebel ship. She sighed with relief as she managed to pull away, but that relief vanished as she gazed upon the skeletal Death Star and suddenly felt despair.

Her scanners told her the terrorist scum had withdrawn their fleet away from the Death Star, but worse: There was some kind of massive energy build-up from within the station, but before she could process anything else, her head suddenly banged as if hit by a girder. After that she could barely concentrate on piloting her TIE as her mind was filled with anger,  malice and hate.

She’d been in the presence of the Force before, near Lord Vader, but she had never been victim of it directly as far as she knew. Now, she could feel the anger, the hatred and malice that her Emperor had borne the rebellion. She shared it, but equally in that instance she knew her beloved Emperor had died.

She blinked, as a flash of blue and white caused her focus to return to her present, having had to constrain her rage (and the presence she’d felt now gone). But that briefest distraction heralded a shock. Where she’d expected to see the burning explosion where the Death Star had been, was nothing but empty space. Between one glance and the next the stars had changed. Not only that, her scanners detected no other ships in the immediate vicinity.

“Stars!” Alusa cursed. She’d heard stories from older veteran pilots about spacial eddies. They all varied but an underlying commonality was that it was never a pleasant experience, and general consensus was it was a rare experience that a pilot survived.

Recovering her wits, she looked at her readings, one eyebrow rising as her craft detected a confusing array of low band frequency signals. Scanning further, she frowned at what at first had seemed to be some pirate outpost, jamming device or terrorist, hideout turned out to be teeming with thriving metropolises.

With that in mind, Alusa decided to park her craft in orbit on the far side of this world’s practically untouched satellite

But as she powered her craft through the maneuvers to bring her into orbit with the moon, her controls took on a life of their own and her craft sped towards the ever enlarging blue-green marble.

 

***

 

Mr Gold stopped tinkering with his alembic, as he could feel that something or someone was coming. With a shrug, he shut down his most recent experiment. Long experience told him that ignoring his instincts was a bad idea and he had a long history with those. 

Closing up shop, he started following the little dot of pretty blue light that he conjured as a locator beacon. The blue he had chosen matched the hue of one of Belle’s favourite dresses. There was a complicated situation if ever he knew one.

Storybrooke was susceptible to reality being rewritten as he well knew, for had he not been the one responsible for bringing it into existence? But it had been altered repeatedly since then even to the point of spending months chasing down a dark future and preventing it from coming true. They'd succeeded but Belle and their son Gideon needed time away from the town to recuperate. Gold, in order to further rebuild his marriage had chosen to remain behind for a time.

He hoped he wouldn’t regress whilst they were away, much as Regina was crossing her fingers that the Evil Queen was gone for good, or her sister wanting her skin tone to stay pink. As for Henry, his grandson was on holiday with his lady love, forgetting his own recent troubles.

“That’s the trouble with darkness,” he muttered to no one in particular, it doesn’t ever truly leave you alone.”

 

* * *

 

Alusa cursed in a way that would have made her father proud, as she attempted to guide the errant solar panel-flanked balls called a TIE bomber towards her apparent landing zone. So far she’d been seemingly undetected, but she was sure even with what little she could gleam from her sensors that even this backwater of a world had the technology to track her craft.

Dust billowed under her craft as it landed, and the displays before her suddenly went dark. She could hear the tell-tale sound of the engines die as every system depowered, and as far as Alusa could tell, for no apparent reason. She didn’t try for long to get her craft functional again, and quickly popped the canopy seal allowing her to climb out. 

Her boots imprinted upon the dirt below her feet, and she visually scanned her environment. Trees, dirt, plants, sunlight and a temperate temperature; it was just like home. With a heavy sigh, and a pursing of her lips, she pulled the black plastoid helmet free, disconnecting it and dropping it on the ground.

Immediately she could feel the air upon her face. it was fresh and inviting, and carrying a salty tang of an ocean but masked by the woods around her. And as far as she could tell, she was alone.

She unclipped her flight pack, stowing it in the emergency compartment in her crafts underside, and pulled out the only survival pack from it. She checked her blaster, and then looked in the direction of the settlement she’d seen on her approach.

She’d hiked along a river flowing through rocks and trees, up a slight incline, before coming off and following a natural path towards towards a ridgeline. As she came abreast of the hill, she got her first glimpse of the town that lay beyond.

“Hello dearie.”

She whirled around to face the person who’d greeted her, the tone was polite, but as elusively amused. What surprised her more was that this person had snuck up on her without triggering her honed alertness to her environment. As she studied this person in the briefest second she could see the arrogance in his eyes. Neither trait was conducive to Alusa showing mercy to the stranger.

Her blaster was already in hand and pointing at him, and he didn’t seem fazed at all.

She made the split second decision to shoot, and a bolt zipped between them, -and vanished. 

The smiling man, standing scant metres away raised one hand, even whilst leaning on his cane, Alusa’s weapon flew through the air and into the his waiting hand. Her eyes widened at the sight and her instincts screamed at her to show obeisance. Bowing her head, hands lowered, she said, "My Lord."

Gold's eyebrows momentarily arched with curiosity before being taken over by more opportunistic thoughts and accompanying by a more self serving smile, and an amused laugh. "Well then dearie, it looks like we can make a deal."


	2. Indomitable

 

Chapter Two

Indomitable

 

The heavily damaged Imperial Star Destroyer, the Indomitable, was limping back to Imperial held space. Progress had been slow, as they’d had to rely on the back-up hyperdrive generator. Commander Orton leaned on the remnant of a computer deck, now  just a mess of melted parts and coils, its acrid stench still permeating the area.  He scowled as a junior officer read off yet another damage report.

The news was not good, the engines were at best a month away from repair even with what was left of the engineering team working around the clock. Often considered redirecting troopers to assist but just let out a deep sigh when he realised just how few personnel he had left for so many tasks.

Then it occurred to him that the galley wasn’t going to be feeding as many and that most ground assault vehicles were now useless. He’d probably have a lot of explaining to do by whoever was now imperial high command, but that was at least a month away.

He looked at the Lieutenant that had read the damage report, and said: “Cannibalise anything you need to keep us up and running, TIEs and AT-ATs.”

“Already done with fighters and shuttles that we don’t need, sir.”

“You probably should have cleared that with me first,” Orton sighed, the command structure had been a bit haphazard since they’d lost half the crew at Endor, “but do what you need to.”

The events of the battle had placed the Commander into the ‘Captain’s Chair’, so to speak having lost the Captain and nearly all the senior staff (and the chair), bar himself and Lieutenant Commander Hawk in hangar eleven.

That stick-jockey never was easy to control at the best of times, and now he was the senior pilot aboard. That put him in charge of what was left of the fighter wing.

He received a curt nod from the newly designated senior Engineering officer, and Commander Orton continued:  “Was there anything else?”

“We have thirty-eight-” The officer was cut short as the ship lurched viciously. Orton tumbled, grasping for a purchase as alarms blared and consoles sparked; the sparks narrowly missing his eyes.

There was a shout of alarm that brought the Commander’s attention up and what he saw through the viewports made his eyes widen. With barely seconds to act, he shouted: “Brace for impact!”

Less than a second later, the Indomitable was pulled into the swirling energy field that had materialised right in front of them. The ship was buffeted even as it seemed to accelerate beyond any conceivable speed.

Warning shouts and cries of pain as his crew suffered further indignities and wounds, assailed his ears, and with a snarl, Orton dragged himself to his feet. “Report! What the hell was that?!”

There were several seconds before someone finally responded as crewmen clambered back to their stations. “I don’t know, sir,” came a grizzled reply, “the hyperdrive is offline, and the main computer is down, we are running on secondary systems.”

Over the next few minutes, Orton listened as reports started trickling in from officers across the bridge, painting a picture of their situation. As he looked out the viewports at the now unfamiliar stars, practically, but lazily, spinning beyond the transparisteel, a question reached his lips: “Where are we?”

The Helmsman below gave a shake of his head. “It’s difficult to tell sir. With the main computer down, all I can tell you is we are definitely not where we were.” He was swiftly joined by an ensign who dropped into one of the several now vacant positions, as Stormtroopers helped pull yet more wounded away from yet more damaged consoles.

Orton took in a deep breath of slightly smoky air. Over half of the crew was dead or severely injured, and now this anomaly. “Someone get me a comprehensive damage report!”

A few moments later one of the remaining bridge officers handed him a datapad, and Orton began muttering it to himself: “Weapon systems offline, shields at minimal, life support barely functioning, and we’re dead in the water.” Thankfully, casualties didn’t look any worse than before, but there had been some.

Orton smiled at what was, in a twisted sense, the first piece of good news.

* * *

It was five hours later, and Commander Orton, the Acting Captain of the Indomitable, stood looking out of the observation windows at the large ringed tanned gas giant that they’d settled into orbit of, whilst they assessed their situation.

“We’ve detected a host of low-powered transmissions, possibly a form of jamming or localised signals.  We’ve been so far unable to decipher them with the main computer down, but repairs are underway, sir. We should have more idea about where we are within the hour.”

Orton knew that his officers were performing as well as could be expected under the circumstances. Given the state of the ship and her equipment he was satisfied. It was of course a state of affairs that could not be allowed to continued. “Get us Intel as quickly as possible, reassign people if you need to.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Residents of Storybrook begin to realise something is n the air. Some of them have the means and the will to form contingency plans.

 

 

The Ties that bind.

 

Regina had to be careful, smoke was rising and she had to steady herself. She didn’t want to fall toward the steam herself. Slowly and steadily she pulled back having extracted the item she sought. Seeing that it was exactly as she wanted it. Laying the desert she was treating herself to Regina Mills concluded that she still made a very tasty apple pie. 

As she sat, sated, pondering what to read or watch, a familiar rhythmic tapping sounded on her door. She groaned for she knew exactly who it was already. Still, considering the two ex arch villains weren’t exactly each other’s’ favourite people, she went to answer the door.

Smiling politely as she opened the door,she said,. “Gold, I’d just like to say what a pleasant surprise it is to see you?”

“But you can’t can you, because it isn’t, is it?”Gold answered. As Regina’s smile widened Gold gave her a conciliatory wave. “I’m her on business, specifically business that Henry may be able to help with. May I enter?”

“Hmm. No?”

“Please.” And with that one word from Gold, Regina found herself nodding and taking a step back. She blinked as Gold passed her, a smug smile on his face. Regina’s very quiet frustrated growl was icing on the cake. Anyone else except Snow or Emma Swan might have missed the sound but Gold had been listening for it. Afterall, he’d been the one that had put that clause in the spell 

Regina shrugged and refocused her smile as she regrouped, “If you’re hungry, there’s some apple pie left that you can help yourself to whilst we discuss matters.”

“Thank you.” Gold devoured the final slice with a smile, arching his eyebrows at the absence of any soporific effects. He saw Regina roll her eyes at his surprise.

She spoke next. “Well, have a cup of tea and tell me what brings you here.”

“As practical as ever. Here.” He waved his hands and the image of his earlier encounter coalesced along with full audio. As the review progressed, Regina’s eyes narrowed. Finally she said,  I can’t remember where I‘ve seen it before or what it is, but I know that I know it.”

“Because of Henry?”

“Yes. I’ll look through his books, comic books and DVDS. And Yes, I know we can use magic but a mundane search…”

“Would reinforce any findings?”

“Precisely,” Regina said.

 

* * *

 

Alusa looked around the room of what she was rapidly concluding had to be some kind of backwater planet. The only audio visual devices around here ran on older technology. Nonetheless it was her duty to adapt to her surroundings until such time as she could either return to Imperial held space, or annex this place in the name of the Empire: A tall order for a single TIE pilot. Didn’t stop her from thinking it in spirit, and it made her smile.

A growling sound took her by surprise and she frowned as she realised her own stomach had made it. Looking at the chronometer she read the numbers. It was a simple enough task for anyone who had ever been to Coruscant to realise that this world used galactic standard, or at the very least, its own variant of it.

She headed down to the dining area happy to see that it was empty except for a raven haired woman talking to the mature owner of the diner. The two women hugged, in a manner that marked them as family. What truly got Alusa’s attention though was the way the younger of the two seemed to keep sniffing the air. That one could be trouble.

First things first thought, she needed to eat. She scanned the board that contained what Alusa assumed was the menu. Alusa didn’t recognise any of the text specifically on the board, but it’s grammatical construct didn’t seem that far from Aurebesh, and some handy, if obscure, illustration seemed to give her an idea of the meals were. 

One of the food options seemed to be some sort of jumble of squiggles. She turned her head from side to side, wondering if she should try the local, ‘Chicken Soup’. Whatever it was on the board, it sure looked like an Endorian Chicken’s head sticking out of a bowl. 

She thought about how it was that she could read the menu, even if she couldn’t identify anything on it really. Her chin resting on her folded hands she decided, “I’ll have whatever the squiggles is.”

“Ramen.” Granny smiled, tapping the squiggles.

Alusa nodded, “I’ll have that please.”

It was a few minutes later when the squiggly dish arrived, and was placed in front of the TIE pilot. It looked to her like a bowl full of thin grassworms in some kind of broth (it was actually a familiar sight). She then concluded, shortly after forking a mouthful, that it smelled and tasted similar to Spiced Coru Noodles from home. She shrugged, “I guess things aren’t that different here after all.”

 

She received a kindly smile from Granny who returned to what she’d been doing before Alusa had sat down. Which was some sort of spirited discussion with a family member.

 

* * *

 

Regina allowed herself a smile, glad that as her son had grown up, he’d argued that instead of discarding all his comic books as his mother had suggested, that as she had got them and given them to him as presents, they were his to deal with. He should be the one that decided what to do with them. Her smile faded as she saw one of Henry’s favourite toys from his youth. 

Picking up the plastic tube and pushing the button, she swung the toy lightsaber around. She had to admit, there was something fun about it. But even so, it meant that Storybrooke now had an Imperial warrior present. As the toy sword hummed once more, Regina had an idea, one that meant she had better be much more careful where she swung it.

 

* * *

 

The Jolly Roger sliced through the water as only she  could. “Steady at the helm Captain Swan, you wouldn’t want to be spotted by Captain Barbarossa or the Kraken now would you?”

At the wheel, Emma Swan giggled. “I should never have created movie night with you and Henry! You’ll be making Han Solo jokes next!”

The semi-reformed pirate snorted in response.  “I could get this ship to do the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs, or I’m not a roguish pirate in a heated romance with a rebel princess!” He was about to add something else when bells chimed signalling a magical hail.

Emma heard it too. “Heaving to and weighing anchor.”

There was the whirr and splash of the Jolly Roger’s anchor descending and the ship stilled. Once secure, the odd couple of Emma Swan and Killian Hook, (swearing that any daughters would be called Elizabeth and take Emma’s surname) answered the message in the captain’s cabin.

As Emma acknowledged the call, a ghostly image of Regina appeared, accompanied by the words, “Help me Obi Swan Kenobi, You’re my only hope.”

Emma rolled her eyes. “ It seems to be the day for Star- wait… what are you holding?”

“Miss Swan, I believe you know what a lightsabre is.”

“Yes, but why is something that I am pretty sure was a toy, now an  _ actual _ lightsaber.”

“Because, Miss Swan I’ll be needing the appropriate props to play the part of an evil Force user. Hopefully we have this covered but if you hear rumours of the return of the- the-”

“Queen,” Emma supplied gently seeing Regina struggle with the memory, and even flinching when Emma herself said it. Emma continued. “What’s happened, Regina?”

Regina said, “A TIE pilot has crashed in Storybrooke. She thinks Gold is a Sith Lord so he’s currently playing up to that role, now that he knows what it means.”

Emma frowned. “Just as long as he doesn’t; backslide, again.”

“Agreed.” 

“Acknowledged.” With that, Emma sighed ending the call. She turned to Hook, saying in response to his quizzical look was, “I have a bad feeling about this.”,

 


	4. Chapter 4

As the Star Destroyer Indomitable approached the small barren red planet, the last one between them and the now much monitored ‘Earth’, Commander and acting Captain Orton Ston had smiled at a report from a subordinate for the first time in a month. Now, apart from the the engines, the Indomitable was at somewhere approaching half readiness. 

They had even managed to retain two AT-ATs and several shuttles. And considering the broadcasts they were monitoring from the populated blue green world, morale had risen as the crew had been shown this ‘Earth’s space program. 

One junior officer had dubbed the monitoring of the apparently backward planet’s space program as ‘Imperial comedy hour.’ The name had stuck, too. Ston had at first been dubious about the humour but upon seeing what he and his crew were up against, had decided that the officer was in fact, harmlessly accurate. He wouldn’t take action until and unless his crew’s competence deteriorated.  
it also allowed him to conceive an invasion strategy. The main weapon that could be launched against them were primitive nuclear weapons and they weren’t even designed for land to space travel. Still, Ston was prudent.

“Lieutenant Rodden,” Ston began.

“Sir? I’m only an Ensign.”

“Not any more, as the officer commanding, I am granting you a battlefield promotion. Furthermore, I am giving temporary promotions along the chain of command. We need commissioned officers. Do you, yourself, have any recommendations?”

“I can make a list, captain.”

“Get to it then.”

“Aye, sir.” There was the clicking of boots on steel as Lieutenant Rodden strode away.

 

* * *

Granny looked up from the crossword puzzle she was completing as the door opened, ringing its little bell. Her smile froze when she recognised Regina. She glanced over to the young dark haired newcomer in the corner who was staring at some kind of tablet   
Regina returned the half smile to Granny and said, “ Everyone is always going on about your blasted Lasagne but you’re not the only one who can bake around here.”

Granny snickered. “I’ve often heard it said that your Apple Pie is the best dessert in town if you don’t want your sleep interrupted at night.”  
Regina sneered. “ Better way to be put to sleep than having to listen to one of your speeches.”  
Granny opened her mouth to reply once more but paused to give a glare to, her granddaughter Red, who han’t been able to stop herself snickering. Red sidled into the back room quietly.

 

“So,“ Regina said, “ When are we having the contest?” She gestured expansively, hiding the spellcasting she was doing even as Granny shook her head.

“Alright Regina, you win. You make the better Italian food but don’t try ordering Lasagne from here in future.”

“One coffee then, to go with a Spaghetti Bolognese. hot.”

Granny poured the coffee and Regina took a sip. “ Good coffee.” She gave Granny a quizzical smile as the older woman looked confused by Regina’s compliment. Regina smiled as she left, knowing that her tracking spell had gone uncontested.

In her corner, Alusa frowned. She’d had her datapad angled so she could just see over it, to make sure she could observe visitors and the brief glance the imperious dark haired woman had given her told the pilot she was under scrutiny. However, what made her blood run cold, was the small cylinder attached to this ‘Regina’s’ belt. She was pretty sure that she had just spotte a lightsaber and the woman’s attitude had had imperial ruler, written all over it.   
Sithspit, another Sith.

* * *

The shop door bell jingled and Gold looked up to see Regina enter, her eyes boring straight into her one time magic tutor, friend, foe, grandfather of her son (whom she’d adopted) and finally, a vitriolic form of polite bitchy friendship.

“Hello, Regina.”

“Hello, Gold.”

“What did you find out?”

“Granny can make good coffee, I make the best Lasagna in town and our newcomer is very observant. I don’t think anyone else would have caught me looking their way. She was quite interested in this little item.” Regina produced the Lightsabre and held it out for Gold to inspect, snatching it back when his hand came close. 

“So I take it you know which story she comes from.”

Gold nodded slowly. “ I do, it’s Star Wars. And she’s a pilot in the service of the evil Galactic Empire.” 

“If we’d met her some years back…” Regina began

“We would have recruited her,” Finished Gold. “ Now though, since you obviously know it well, I suggest you take the lead in planning.”

“I thought you might, so I brought all eight movies.”

“And what is the plan, watch them all?”

“Exactly.” 

 

* * *

After the Sith like woman left the diner, Alusa made a decision. Her first Sith lord had not contacted her again and in all honesty, after everything she had discovered within the last twenty four hours, she was highly motivated to leave the planet.

She took her plate back to the woman she had heard named Granny. With a slight smile, she said, “I know I’m very new to these parts, but what from what I’ve seen of this town so far, it feels like there’s a lot of bad blood and a lot of untold stories.” As the last word left word her lips, Alusa frowned, she had meant to say ‘history’ but some unknown compulsion had made her change at the last moment.

Granny stopped polishing the plate she had just rinsed and replied. “ It’s started affecting you, hasn’t it?” When her answer was puzzled look, Granny added, “The power of story.”  
Alusa shook her head, none the wiser and Granny gave her a smile. “ Well,Once Upon A Time...”

 

* * *

Orton smiled at his adjutant. The man was as fast as could be expected, if not a little faster, at carrying out his duties than could be legitimately asked for. Proof of that rested in his hands in the form of an up to date datapad. On his desk, lay another datapad, updating him on the Indomitable’s status. Reassigning Stormtroopers to mostly logistical support and a having a few trained ground gunners work with the TIE pilots had worked out very well. The ship was now at just under three quarters repaired.

With the datapad he held now, Orton started contemplating how well he and his crew would fare in attempting to seize on of this pathetic backwater’s nation states. The Terrans were a fractious set of people, pontificating and claiming moral superiority over each other, when Orton knew that the only superiority that truly mattered was the tactical kind. A communications officer stood and turned to him, standing ramrod straight and waiting to be addressed, obviously waiting to share some recent information.

“Report.”

“Sir, the national governments of the planet are scanning us with primitive com-sats. However, the President of the United States has requested a face to face hail. I would hasten to add, that her country’s nuclear weapons are targeted at us. They cannot reach us unless we close to a close orbital range.”

“Define ‘close orbital.”

“Between their moon and their planet sir and even then we would simply need to reverse.”

“So, no threat that we cannot overcome. Patch her through.”

*

It was 20:00 hours and President Jennifer Wilson had assembled her senior staff, with all available security called in.   
She sat in her chair eyes locked onto the grey suited captain, who was sat comfortably, so many miles above, impervious to assault.  
The face that greeted Orton was that of a middle aged healthy Black women with cornrow plaited hair, a professional and guarded smile on her lips. 

“Madame President I presume.”

“You presume correctly Captain-?”

“Orton, Captain of the scout vessel, Indomitable.”

There was a glint in the now reaching the woman below’’s eyes and Orton knew he had failed in his bluff. He changed tack immediately. “Very well, I am Captain Orton of the Imperial Star Destroyer ‘Indomitable’ and I am annexing this planet for the glory of the Empire. I am sending every nation the terms of their surrender now.”

The president’s smile vanished, to be replaced by a steely glare and Oton considered that for her world at least, she might be marginally competent. That changed nothing though, being a man, he already knew he would beat her at any stratagem. 

“We will fight you, as fractious as we are, we will resist, protect-”

“Fire.” Orton didnt change posture, or signal, or even raise his voice as he gave the order.

The president’s jaw dropped as Orton spoke.“Do not try to bluster us, do not attempt to play for time. We do not tolerate it. Check your news channels and your national monuments. You will find that you now possesses two fewer, specifically The statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore. Understand that I have been merciful. We have limited your casualties. We will not do so again.”  
President wilson shouted into the screen. “Our civilian population are defenceless, leave them out of this!”

“No,” Orton replied impassively. “Your civilians are your duty. By failing to surrender quickly enough to an obviously superior opponent, you show yourselves unfit to rule. Do not make me give a second fire order. It will be aimed at your State of Wyoming, I shall credit you with enough intelligence to understand the specific target.”

“...Yellowstone.” The President whspered, blanching at the thought. Rallying herself, she spoke quickly “ Captain Orton, doubtless you have been monitoring our communications and understand how much red tape we suffer. I only ask one hour of you to prepare my nation for its change of management.”

“You may have it. After all, I have other nations to subjugate.” He smiled briefly but as the smile disappeared. He held up his datapad, and the highlighted areas made Wilson shiver. She knew quite well that from Yellowstone to the San Andreas fault and Mount St Helens, he could fire without repercussions.

“To demonstrate that we are following your demands, I now order our national flag lowered.”

Orton smiled. ”We shall talk again.” And h waved his hand in dismissive gesture and the transmission ended.

*  
Wilson looked at the secretary of Defense and growled. Sitrep!”

Secretary Warren McCain too a deep breath and said in grim tones. “Mount Rushmore and the surrounding towns are gone, vapourised, Nothing there now except molten slag. According to Mayor Swanson of NYC, so is Liberty island. Emergency services are swamped. Literally in NYS.”

“Explain.”

“Simply put, the water crashed into the new hole, and then rebounded along multiple shores and docks. Casualties are high, we’re looking at fatalities in the hundreds. If he’d fired on the ESB…”

Wilson sagged. “That’s on his target list. Order a complete and utter stand down, we have no choice but to capitulate. Our have no way of repelling fire power of that magnitude.”

She slumped in her chair as the orders went out, the news chains broadcasting on a continuous loop. The New York air flashed, briefly as bright as day near Liberty island bright green as a massive bolt of green turbolaser fire struck home, with a thunderous roar and a tumultuous result..

*  
Captain Orton sat back, and read out names of people and places on his datapad, selecting the more prominent countries for intimidation. He began instructing his gunners in their targets: “Nelson’s column. The Eiffel Tower. The Hague. The Vatican City State. The Temple of Jerusalem. Mecca. Mount Fuji…” 

Terra Firma the inhabitants called their planet on occasion. He liked that, with a small twist he could reference the Imperial doctrine of Firmer terror


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

A New Hope

Most of the inhabitants of storybrooke were seated in the house of their ongoing Mayor. As usual, it was Regina, as even when she was considered dangerous and corrupt, the citizens were still of the opinion she was at least a good mayor.   
She stood there now, watching over her charges, formerly foes. Only she and Gold knew what they, and now the rest of the world were truly up against. 

Conversely, the Imperials above were unaware of the threat that that Storybrooke represented.

“People of Storybrooke, friends, allies, And those in between. We’ve battered away at each other and there are many amongst you who wish I’d just disappear and frankly, I feel the same about you. But, time and again, we have banded together for common cause. That ship, in space and what it stands for, is terrifying. 

However, it is no more terrifying than Maleficent in full flight in Dragon form, or Mr Gold when he was the dark one.”  
She paused. “And last, and certainly by no means least,” Regina smiled and gestured expansively, “There’s me.”  
In the audience, Granny nodded.

* * *

Alusa had gone to her chambers just in time to catch the frantic news reports coming in from across the globe concerning what was now being called ‘Arrival. In the end she had taken to watching the ‘BBC’ their reporting in measured tones, impressing her with their calm demeanour, even though their fear remained obvious.

As the large green bolt had thundered down, the pilot had recognised the telltale signal of Imperial firepower, following the usual doctrine of destroying cultural icons. Now she watched as the BBC played new footage, of a man in a grey uniform, his peaked cap sitting smartly on his head issuing both surrender demands and informing the nations of this ‘Earth’ of the consequences of resistance.

Both as morale boosting as that was for her, Alusa’s heart jumped. She knew Captain Orton, even if had been a subcommander the last time she;d seen him. After all, the Indomitable was her own ship.  
What brought the thought to her though? she muttered to herself. The most logical explanation is that being my own ship, it was connected to my TIe enough to home in, She stopped, pondering how it could do such a thing without an active homing signal “ah, that ‘Story’ garbage’ they’ve been telling me. The Force and the Sith are here. 

Her chain of thought was sounding crazier and crazier in her head and she very nearly discarded her hypothesis until thinking about crazy stories of Lord Vader and the His most august Majesty, the emperor would sound to those who had never had the privilege of having being in their presence  
She shook her head. What truly mattered though was that She had enough information to do her duty, everything else, she could ponder en route back to her TIE. Her First priority now as re establishing contact with the chain of command and awaiting further orders

As she reached that conclusion, she waited until the diner had emptied, after all, Both Granny and Mayor Mills could prove an impediment. She wasn’t missing her blaster as she was painfully aware that both Mr. Gold and Mayor Mills could neutralise it easily. And Gold had not returned the weapon anyway.

* * *

In the harbour of Storybrooke, the Jolly Roger landed, and ropes uncurled and attached themselves to the Jetty posts securing the vessel as though they had a mind of their own. 

Killian Hook watched as the ship was anchored within minutes. Emma was a fairly skilled Magic user these days, nearly on ar with Regina and just a smuch an unholy terror to deal with as Regina, if she thought Henry was under any threat. He would have said god's help anyone who had to face anyone that faced Emma and Regina together but after what they had done to Hades, he scratched that off the list too.  
Emma Swan surfaced, and gave a satisfied smile. “Look, no hands!”

“I’m only half as good as you then,” Hook replied good naturedly, waving his hook. Then he hopped onto the jetty and offered Emma his good hand, helping her up as she took it.

“My turn,” She said and waggled her fingers, invoking a cloud of sparkling blue azure smoke that briefly hid them from view. When it dissipated, they found themselves outside the town hall. With that they entered, all eyes turning to them. Emma was just fast enough to see the relief in Regina’s eyes before the other woman growled, “Where have you been?”

“On my honeymoon, thank you very much.”

“I’m sorry we had to cut it short but, frankly. I’m glad you’re here.”  
Behind them, Hook was regarding an old sparring partner, trying to fathom out where they stood with each other these days. “Crocodile.”

“Pirate.”

Before any more words could be exchanged, Emma Swan whirled on them both. “Right, I’ve had enough of this. Gold, your wife left you back then for perfectlyatvalid reasons. Considering that you have needed to change who you were and that’s the man Hook met, then shove the attitude. As for you Hook, You had a point but allowed it to consume you and lose your honour. I married a differet man. Both of you let it go before it destroys the pair of you all over again!”

With that Emma turned and strode over to Regina and Hook and Gold had to blink. After a moment,Gold waved his hands and there was a tinny sound. Hook reacted by reaching for Gold with his Hook-hand,unsure of the old wizard’s plan. He stopped, stunned. Letting go of gold, he wiggled his newly returned fingers.

“Why?” it was all he could say.

“Two reasons,”Gold admitted, “Firstly, as an act of actual gratitude for protecting Henry all theses years, secondly, MIss Swan is right, we need to put the darker days behind us.”

“Make that three reasons,” a Giddy Killian suggested, “Neither of us want her angry at us!”

The heavy chuckling that followed drew Regina and Emma's attention and Regina Commented, “You may succeeded a little too well.”

*

It took awhile but the hall calmed, Regina issued guidelines and the citizenry prepared to cloak their city and ride out the oncoming storm. But it was already too late. 

In a field,a space fighter from a far flung galaxy was back in working order and its pilot was activating her coms.  
High above, Ensign Sillen Gebren blinked, before double checking his workstation for malfunctions. When he did confirm the signal to be authentic, he replied

“This is Indomitable to fighter craft, report!”

“This is Tie pilot, Lieutenant Alusa Ruyyal of the Indomitable,” She had to pause for the cheers to die down before continuing, “On the planet Earth. Tactical analysis follows.”


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six.

Exit stage left, pursued by a TIE fighter.

 

Captain Orton sat in his chair and smiled at his senior staff, bolstered by some recent promotions “”I know that some of you had misgivings about the unusually aggressive nature of this operation but simply put, if we are to take supplies and maintain our ship and crew, we needed to act decisively. Considering how fractious and argumentative these Terrans are, I decided that a short sharp shock was the best way to seize control.”

A newly promoted Lieutenant raised a hesitant hand, speaking only when Orton acknowledged him. “Was there no chance of convincing the world below of accepting our ‘aid’ and subverting them from within, sir?

“Maybe one of two nations would have but then their enemies would have aligned themselves against us, As you are doubtless now aware, they have radioactive warheads, which can, if fired in sufficient numbers, can inflict moderate to severe damage upon our ship. A few years ago, before the primitives below could adapt their weapons to reach orbit, they would not have been a concern. But alas, now they are. Next question?”

“Infiltration and subversion?”

As backwards as the are, not only would our people be fish out of water and therefore more prone to detection, but even if they did evade it, it would take far too long to be viable. No, swift action was necessary. We do not know how quickly they could have adapted, and we are in an unknown sector of space.

“Then why not avoid contact and covertly obtain what we can from them?”

“An excellent question and the answer I regret to say,is that due to the sheer number of them, we missed numerous surveillance devices-” He had to halt as his subordinates broke out into angry discussion, promising swift retribution amongst their juniors.” 

The discussion ended as Orton coughed, Looking coolly around the table,he stated, There will be no such actions taken, Our people have performed as well as can be expected under the circumstances, especially considering how many communications officer we lost. Adjutant?”

“Sir?

“I am hereby raising you to the position of first officer. Make sure no one gets carried away with the blame game.”

“Aye, sir. I’ll order some shift rotation and cross skill training where possible. I have also instructed Lieutenant commander Ruyyal to rendezvous with our ground team as This ‘Storybrooke continues to be cloaked from any and all scans, even when all the surrounding areas are perfectly clear.”

Orton clenched his jaw. "I have a bad feeling about this.”

There'll minted Executive Officer cleared his throat. Speaking once Orton nodded. ”I’ve organised strike teams sir, Two AT-ATs, a flight of TIE Fighters and five Stormtrooper squads.”

“A further demonstration of our abilities, this time, ground based cement our gains.

“Cement, sir?”

“A building foundation mixture they use, an inferior, relative to Durasteel..”

* * *

Alusa smiled in her pilot seat, her Tie now functional once more. When a swirl of smoke spiraled around her and dissipated, leaving in its wake, the strange force wizard, she bowed.

“My lord, I know not how you brought my ship through and rendered it functional once more, but I must thank you.”

“But of course dearie,” Gold smiled, his mind racing, whist maintaining his deception. “After all, what is the point of power never used.”

A new voice sounded outside the craft and Alusa raised an eyebrow as she looked over to see Regina, standing there, dressed in an imperious low cut black dress, a lightsaber humming to life as she poke“I’m glad you asked that, you old fossil.”

I don’t need the force to know what’s coming next… and i would rock that dress so damned well. I suppose I can always hope that if she loses, it’s by decapitation..”

An inane giggling sound behind her startled her and her eyes widened as she realised it was the man next to her, but now he wore garish clothing and was sparkling and blue skinned.

“If you think I’m coming down there to fight you fairly, well, look behind you!” He cackled again as a blonde woman strode out and ignited a lightsaber. This one was blue and Alusa’s instincts kicked in. she banked and her TIE’s engines screamed as she tried to strafe the Jedi.

“What the hell?” She tried depressing the triggers again but still nothing happened. A hand landed gently on her shoulder and Rumplestiltskin giggled at her. 

“Sorry dearie, but I’m the one who found that goody two shoes saviour and told her where to find the evil queen. They’ll keep everyone busy whilst you take me up and I speak with your commanding officer. 

“He told me to remain here.”

“And I’m telling you to take me to see him. And we both know that Sith outrank everyone else don’t we, now?” The last few words were spoken so softly, so gently and so full of threat, that Alusa found herself obeying instinctively and taking off.

She flicked her coms and was surprised to see that she had visual. The Lieutenant on the other side was equally surprised at the sight. He blinked once when Alusa spoke to him.

“This is Pilot Alusa Ruyyal, returning to the Indomitable as ordered by Lord Gold. Prepare of his Lordship’s arrival.”

“We will make all effort. Be advised that we are still stretched and many areas are still undergoing repair.”

That cackle sounded again Rumplestiltskin leaned into, his eyes locked on the officer’s. “Hm, I suppose I can be merciful this time around. But, I expect to be greeted by all senior staff.”

“As you command, my lord.

* * *

Emma Swan twirled on last time,,bringing her lightsaber down in a mighty crash on Regina;s. She grinned. “Good job we didn’t have these a few years ago.”

“I’m inclined to agree. But keep swinging as though we did. We need to make sure that if anyone is watching, they think we’re serious.”  
Emma grimaced and swung her lightsaber, before allowing herself to be pushed away. As Regina brought her own lightsaber up, Emma went on guard. Regina grinned and then turned and sprinted for the nearest woods.

As she gained the treeline, Regina turned and slammed her weapon into the ground, ad summoned up a spiral of smoke that engulfed her and the rapidly closing Emma Swan.

*

The smoke cleared as the the two woman reappeared in the Mayoral residence and with a twist of her fingers, Regina alter her clothing to something a little more conservative..

Emma too, rushed herself off and let her hair uncoil itself before asking, “So, how are we doing?”  
Regina snorted as she said, “The same as usual.”

“That bad huh?” Emma replied. 

Regina stopped smiling. “MIss Swan, if we are repeatedly starting to quote the story source then it means that were are can expect to be identified by major players by that ship abo-

The thing that stopped Regina was a shrill screaming sound, worse for her now being able to identify it as the sound of TIE fighter engines and shortly after, the accompanying weapons fire.

“They know who we are and where we’re based.”

“We didn’t fool them, damn it!”

The mansion shook as bolt after bolt slammed into it and Emma looked puzzled when it didn’t collapse around them. “Regina?”  
Regina smiled “When this all started I added some major spells to the mix.* She was about to say something else when the whole building shook and there was a knock at the door.

Emma checked the door, maintaining the spell int as Regina took the call.   
Standing at the entrance of the house, a red ring on her finger glowing brightly, stood Ruby, panting hard, one hand on the wall, supporting herself. “Walker things.”  
Emma's eyes widened as she realised what this meant and turned to address Regina.

“I already know. This is the beginning of a full scale occupation of storybrooke.”


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven.

Spinning a Yarn

 

Alusa exited her craft when the docking clamps finished their business, and removed he helmet, to be greeted by the familiar sights and smells of a Star Destroyer hangar. There were some unwelcome smells, where scorch marks remained and repair crews continued to bring the ship back to scratch.

What really caught her attention though was Commander, no, captain Orton, here to greet her in person. She was dimly aware that Gold was not standing besides her, his hands clasped behind his back. She hadn’t noticed him exit. When orton blinked and then saluted, she realsiesd that eh hadn’t registered her passenger at first either.

It was tense for a second as the unknown visitor was regarded with suspicion, and then troopers started taking aim, as did Orton himself. Unsure of her action but copying her commanding officer’s example, she reached for her own weapon, forgetting once more that it had not been returned to her.

The next few moments demonstrated in away, why she was lucky: Gold held up one hand and all weapons flew to land in clatter at his feet, Before anyone else could act, he raised his other hand and captain Orton and those near him started to struggle to breathe.  
Gold softly, a menacing smile on his lips. “Is that any way to greet a visiting Sith lord, and your superior, Hmm?”

Orton grasped at his neck, struggling to breathe, acutely aware that he only managed his current laboured breathing at Gold’s restraint. Then the pressure ceased and he gasped a few times. 

“Let that be a lesson about obeisance, hmm? One that you have learned.”

“Yes,” gasped Orton,

“Yes…?” Gold asked casually.

“My lord,” Orton replied immediately.

“That’s better. Now, this brave, beautiful young pilot will go and freshen up, whilst you captain, show me to my VIP quarters.”

“The ship was heavily damaged my lord, so much so, that the closest we have to that, are my own quarters. But make no mistake, They are at your disposal immediately”

He didn’t seen the brief look of relief that passed over Gold’s face. But the wily old crocodile had endured a major strain on his abilities. If he hadn't sat with Regina and familiarised himself with the story of these people, he would not have been ready to take command of so many at once. Even forewarned, it had been touch and go. 

Gold keep the smug smile on his face, even as he pondered how to work this. There was always the option of giving up on- NO. He dismissed that treacherous thought a split second as it somehow arrived, the seductive tones of dark power calling to him, as strong as anything he’d ever felt before, tempting him with promises of untold power, beyond anything he had ever imagined before.

He resisted it, partly for Belle, partly due to the utter malice he felt behind the temptation. He had been may things, coward, wizard, beast, crocodile, father, grandfather, betrayer, and penitent. And through all that, one thing had remained constant: Rumplestiltskin had been his own man.

 

* * *

“Welcome home, Lieutenant.” The ensign assigned to Alusa gave her a warm smile and stood at the door. It had only been a week but it was quite possibly the longest week Alusa had ever experienced. She strode over to her observation port and looked out, mildly surprised to see that she had a good view of the planet below. 

“If I’m ever inside its atmospheric envelope again, let it be because I’m on a bombing run.”

She turned back from the window then and sat at a desk where she considered recent events. Even though Imperial forces had gone from ‘Lone TIE’ to ‘Star Destroyer’ it remained true that they were cut off from home, under supplied and under garrisoned. If there was one thing that she know, it was that even at full strength, insurgents had not stopped throwing themselves at the Emperor’s finest.

It seemed to happen everywhere. In her short stay, she had learned that chaotic forces, some reminiscent of the notorious terrorists, Saul Gerrera, had continued their own campaigns against larger, stronger, better trained and equipped. The same paradigm had even applied to the denizens of the town she had stayed in. 

But now, it would change and order would finally be imposed, if only on one primitive backwater world.  
That was when the comms beeped and a ship wide went out and she listened intently as a second and even a third wave of attackers were deployed to Storybrooke.

Even as she witnessed the devastating power of the Imperial war machine, encompassed in a single shp. Alusa let out a deep breath. It looked like she was finally done with that backwater planet/ 

The heady tread of Stormtrooper boots sounding behind her and even before one spoke, voice distorted by his helmet. “Pilot Ruyyal, you are to come with us for Debriefing.”

*

“Come in Lieutenant.”

Alusa entered the room, took a few brisk steps towards her captain and gave a brisk salute.”

Orton put down his datapad and leaned back, his eyebrows raised as he regarded his subordinate. “Your report makes for curious reading. So much so that I would like to hear it in person, from the Empire’s newest trailblazer.”

Alusa smiled tightly and nodded. “Where would you like me to start, sir?”  
“From your landing.”

“Sir. Alusa took a deep breath. Things were happening quickly. “Lord Gold bade me stand and, then he… I could only call it cacklin. It simply took him the wiggling of the fingers and my TIE was made to look like a small hill, with a few trees upon it.” 

“Hmm. ” It seemed to Alusa that Orton sounded interested by the camouflage potential, instead of the scathing scepticism she had expected. Orton tapped something into his data pad before turning back to Alusa. “Continue,” he said.

“Once he had finished, I asked for further instructions. Unknowing of his true rank, power, or affiliation, I defaulted once more to addressing him as ‘My Lord’.”

Orton sighed. “Considering his attitude and the near casual way he retained control on his arrival, I am forced to concede that, distasteful as it might be, in either of our circumstances, that you made the right choice.”

Alusa gave her captain a cynical smile. “Aye, sir. But then he turned to me, shook his head and said that he would rather have me call him ‘Gold’ or should I insist on a title, call him ‘Mister’ Gold.”

Orton frowned,rising from his chair and turning to look out of the viewport. His hands clasped behind his back in classic imperial fashion. Alusa thought it rather suited him. “Interesting,” she heard him murmur.

“Then sir, “ Alusa continued, pausing just long enough for the captain to shush her should he so wish. When he gestured for her to continue, she did. “Mister Gold decided that I could be of use to him, but most of what he said failed to make any sense to me. I can only reiterate that he sequestered me in a diner, where I ate the most familiar sounding meal they had. They call it, Lasagna. It’s highly reminiscent of ‘Coruscanti Cookpot.”

“Some things are a universal constant. It seems that every planet has its own version.”

“Cookpot and Mantellian Meatballs, sir.”

Orton smiled briefly, then gave a curt no.

“I asked him if he was suggesting leaving me with friends or simply avoiding enemies,” Alusa said, “ He responded by saying, ‘both, neither, all; to wit, family.”

Orton let put a little grunt of frustration. No matter what part of the galaxy he served in, he always seemed to be around for petty domestic family squabbles. "He sounds practically Corellian. Well, you may as well tell me about the diner.”

“A small, cramped place with mediocre furnishing, a falsely polite old woman, and it seemed there was even bad blood between the owner and ‘Mister Gold’. The old woman looked at me, and ‘Mister Gold’ said something to her. And as aforementioned I ended up eating Cookpot with meatballs. Whilst I did so, I calculated escape routes.”

“Good to hear.”

“The I ate the, passable' food, with my back to the wall, watching the window and entrance. The Old woman tried to look me over without being noticed.”

“And quite obviously she failed.” Orton was smiling tightly.

“Yes, sir. When I realised that she was studying my scar, so I addressed her directly. ‘Yes? I said to her. The woman whose only name seemed to be ‘Granny’ simply shook her head, chuckled like an imbecile and said, 'Sorry, miss, I’m getting old, used to be that I could size someone from one end of this diner, with them noticing at the other. My fullest apologies.”

“I considered making a less than polite observation but Gold shook his head and I kept a tactical silence

Orton gave her a questioning look..”Why was it tactical, instead of tactful Lieutenant?”

“I was in a an unfamiliar environment, cut off from support, currently weaponless, outgunned and in the company of ‘Mister Gold’.So I elected to sit and listen to see what useful information I could discern from any conversations.”

“Did you?”

“Oh yes, sir. I learned about the weird force users from Ariel the aquatic princess to Regina Mills, one time student of our ‘Mister Gold, to Emma Swan, who by all description sounds like a Thrice damned Jedi.”

“Ugh.”

“It gets worse I’m afraid, she is married to a semi reformed pirate captain.”

“At least he doesn’t’ own a specially modified ship?” There was the faintest note of hope in the captain’s voice.

“I'm truly sorry sir.” Alusa shrugged helplessly as the captain groaned.The shrug briefly reminded the captain that his subordinate was a well built woman but he dismissed the distraction immediately.

The brief smile on Alusa’s lips told the captain that she hadn’t missed his momentary reaction, though.

 

*

 

The earth shaking walkers paused in their advance only to take shots at the two dragons that dodged and weaved, whilst also spitting white hot flames at the knees of both machines. And try as they might, the TIEs could not match the flight skill of Maleficent and her daughter. BUt the two dragon nobles couldn’t maintain a continuous assault either.

Stormtroopers marched into the town, locking it down street by street, whilst their air support and artillery stalemated Storybrooke major hitters.

A squad of Stormtroopers paused in the main square as a rumbling sound got louder. “What the-” was all one of them said, before the ground opened up under his feet. They were not the only ones to be caught, Across the two, cracks in the ground zigzagged away and many areas collapsed, burying the soldiers under tons of rubble.

“This is flight leader, all fighters converge on the large dragon, fire for effect,”

As a second flight of Ties converged on her position, Maleficent was unable to flank her daughter and screamed in outrage as when a flurry of red bolts slammed into her child, twisting her this way and the leathery skin visible where there should only be scales.  
Maleficent swooped desperately but could only watch as her daughter plummeted out of control, hitting the ocean hard.

* * *

After Alusa had departed,Orton had needed to make a choice; either to keep the magician in the dark or to do his best to incorporate him or not

Even as the increasingly desperate battle raged below, fought by only a minor imperial contingent, with each new detachment adapting tactics as they went, Captain Orton watched his new master carefully. His hand itched as he longed to draw his blaster and fire, to retake control.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, dearie. I only have so much mercy, and to be honest, I’d hate to fall into a cliched habit of amputating the hands of captains who thought they could get away with attacking me.”

Orton made himself stop fidgeting, even whilst mentally sweating over how the garish sorcery had known, “My lord.”

“That’s much better.” Gold turned and gave Orton a concerned look. “You were right to take more preventative action against that town. Some of them have a habit of beating the odds, especially an annoying scruffy pirate and the hot headed, rebellious princess who’s his wife. and a starng elittle boy form the back end of nowhere with mysterious powers.”

Orton blinked an in slow measured tones, but unable to fully contain himself, Said, “That is an irritatingly familiar state of affairs.”  
Gold cackled, “And between you and I. captain, I’m sure he’s made adjustments to his smuggling vessel. No ship like his should be able to move like that!” 

The wave of resentment at the notion that radiated from the captain would only be noticeable to those who had known him a long time, or Force sensitives: Or to the man who had manipulated him to feel exactly how he wanted him to.

“You can go now captain, these quarters are quite suitable.” Gold hid his satisfaction as the captain left, waves of further resentment reeling out from him. As Orton turned to leave Gold waited until the man was at the actual door then added, “But, that young lady has potential, so I would quite seriously recommend her for Imperial governess of Storybrooke.

Orton’s mouth twitched and he was glad that his back was to Gold, hiding his expression. My lord.”  
Gold cackled in that strange little way of his and said, “bye now, captain.” 

When he had gone, a quick spell sufficed to lock the door and cloak the room from any eavesdropping. Once he was done, Gold sat back with a heavy sigh. It as all well and good, his being aboard, but whilst he could manipulate the captain, he could not affect the tens of thousands aboard all at once. Nor would he be be able to fool the captain for too long.

He reached out with his mind, using the bonds of family that linked him, if weakly, to Emma and Regina, raising an eyebrow as he found it much easier to contact Emma. Then it clicked, they were linked by another power, the power of the dark one. Even though both were through that ordeal, it left an indelible mark. He was surprised to see that he had the equivalent of a video call.

“Gold, is that you?” Emma Swan’s expression was one of deep concern.

“It is, Miss Swan. What’s happening down there?”

“They’re here in strength. Three divisions of troopers and air and mechanised support. It won’t be long before we lose the Mansion. We’ve already lost maleficent and her daughter, The dwarves have been taken prisoner and Granny and Ruby are staying put in the diner with Dorothy. Robin and Zelena are besieged in the forest with his men. I hope it’s better-”

She halted abruptly as the mansion was rocked by a direct hit from an AT-AT. Regina continued the conversation. “We know how powerful they are and we know who their main targets are. Emma and I need to leave Storybrooke. I’ve sent out a messenger spell ordering everyone to lay down arms, and informing the imperials of that fact.” 

Emma started speaking again, “And I’m sensing that they’re taking people prisoner. But every sense I have tells me, we won’t be on their list.”

“It seems miss Swan, that you have met an implacable enemy hell bent on destroying you, again.”

“Practice.” The only surprise Gold had at hearing that word was that Regina had beat Emma to it. “Oh, don’t look at me like that Miss Swan, we all know you were going to say it. But right now we need to concentrate on transporting ourselves to a safe location.”

“Understood, fyi, I have been multi tasking through all this. We’ll be boarding ship shortly.”

Gold understood perfectly. “All my best… Emma.”

“You too, Gold. I hope to find whatever it is we need.”

“That, Emma Swan, is where I’m ahead of you. We need Henry. We need... the Author.”


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Captain Orton double checked his reports. The Indomitable was very nearly at full repair, and the now newly minted Lieutenant Commander Ruyyal had been completely debriefed. There had a couple of comments by ensigns that had thought she couldn’t hear them. 

“If you find toilet humour funny, gentlemen, the pilot had said, turning to address them, enjoying their rapidly blanching faces, “then I can help you. Report to a new detail where you can indulge all you want. After all, a star Destroyer has many lavatories to clean.”

He asked her about that incident and once he’d been informed, he had approved. It had been the deciding factor in a choice he’d needed to make swiftly. He opened his door. “Come in Lieutenant Commander.”

Alusa stepped through, clad now in her the standard issue grey naval fatigues, albeit with new insignia added. “Sir.” With that she entered, strode in crisp military fashion to a foot before his desk and snapped off a salute.

He regarded her and then said, “We have new territory, a somewhat recalcitrant one and now that we’ve removed its leadership, we need someone in place and as you are actually the most familiar with the planet, the people and quite specifically where we want you to govern, I have chosen you. Any questions?”

“Is there any way I can avoid this posting, sir?”

“No. Especially not after it transpired that Lord Gold’s opinions on this matter mirrored my own.”

“When do i leave?”

“As soon as you’ve chosen an administerial team. Oh, and you may waive Imperial regulations about fraternisation and consumption of alcohol. Just don’t go all Hutt Party on me.”

“Understood, sir. “

*

The Lambda class shuttle, scorched and with Hydraulic landing ramp still creaking a little as it landed, landed a fair way back from the new imperial overseer’s residence. As the land ceased it descent, Alusa strode forwards, flanked by her elite guardswomen, a triumphant smile on her face.

She had no problem with the normally male dominated imperial army but some instinct here had prompted her to change things around a little. These people seemed quitre used to it, Alusa took down a few female troopers to act as a personal guard. Then she recited a list of notable names she had been told of, famous and infamous, noting that one Regina Mills cropped up in both categories.

“In Alphabetical order, Ariel the Mermaid, Cora, Elsa the Snow princess, Emma Swan, Saviour and Jedi. Lily the Draconic shapeshifter and her mother, Maleficent the sorceress, Regina Mills, Sith lord and deposed Mayor, Queen and Tyrant. Mulan the swordswoman. Snow Blanchard, formerly Mary Margaret.” Alusa paused. Snow was a better name than the woman’s other name and by all reports, she was much less of a wet blanket when identifying as ‘Snow’. Then Alusa continued her recitation. Ruby the wolf-girl and her ...girlfriend... Dorothy.” 

The admission of what that pairing were to each other made Alusa scowl with distaste. Then she finished off, “And Force user Zelena. Sister to Regina.”  
The first guard turned to Alusa, having waited for her commander to finish her mutterings. “Ma’am,” She queried. 

“Advance and make sure that the anarchists haven’t left any impromptu electronic welcoming devices, particularly those of an explosive paradigm. And it’s sir, not ma’am, i didn’t go through the academy to gain the title ‘Mister Ruyyal, just to have it forgotten now.”

“Yes sir, sorry sir.”

“No apology required this time and no apology acceptable next time. Simply put, this didn’t happen.” She turned to address the rest of her retinue and asked. 

“What just happened?”  
“Nothing sir!”

*

Ruby regained her human form,as Dorothy threw the red cloak over her, None of the imperials had paid the trotting canine much attention and it had allowed her to escape the mansion by simply sitting by Regina’s pool and pretending to doze in the sun.  
Granny watched, with Ruby and Dorothy flanking her as the new ruler took up residence. Out of the corner of her mouth she murmured one word. “Well?”  
Ruby finished the sniffing she had been doing and made a few very tight low growls that Granny was able to understand. 

“A staff of fifty, thirty of whom are soldiers and twenty of those smell female to me. Not only that, Take a look at the way they walk. There’s hip sway men just don’t have… Unless they’re very good drag artists. Talk later.”

Granny gave what would be an imperceptible nod to anyone but Ruby. She had a massive feeling of guilt; The new dictator turned to look at Granny, then just as quickly turned away but not fast enough to prevent Granny spotting a flicker of confusion.

The three citizens returned to the diner. One there, Granny shut the door and put three lasagnes in the oven to cook straight from frozen. And Toto bounced up to his mistresses.

Dorothy and Ruby held hands and reassured each other without words. Then Ruby stood from the table and went to fetch something from her own room. When she returned she a had a small bag with her and immediately handed it to Dorothy. “I remembered you like shoe shopping and that you’d also like a reminder of OZ to keep with you and as well and on top of all that, something that will make you think of me.”

“Really?” 

“Really, and all in one go as well.”  
Dorothy reached into the bag and what she withdrew were shoes. Shoes woven from what seemed to be- No, not seemed to be, was, wolf fur. And She’s recognise Ruby’s pelt anywhere now. The colour was the last thing she registered though Dorothy realised they’d been expertly dyed.

“I hope you like them, Your very own Ruby slippers.”

Dorothy sighed. “They’re gorgeous, but tell me, how long did it take you to think it up?

“A little while- Oh, Granny’s back.”

Granny pulled up a chair. “Nice to see young love blossom, especially for you, pup.But there’s new test about to greet you. Just like I had to deal with how Regina changed, you=

There was a swirl of Green Smoke and as it dissipated, Ruby’s eyes glowed gold and her face glistened ever so slightly, ready to go full wolf. ro distend slightly her cowl ready to drop to the floor. Dorothy reached to her belt, unclipped a small fold out device and within two seconds had her crossbow fully assembled, loaded and pointed straight at Zelena’s heart..

 

* * *

Governor Ruyyal wandered around the mayoral mansion, taking in the decor and furnishings. The things that piqued her interest though were the audio visual devices. These people even had passable vidcoms and entertainment storage. Primitive in comparison but nonetheless showing potential. The Terrans had even created a fighter jet that would nearly match a TIE in atmosphere. She'd looked over some over space based exploration and had blinked at one idea.

That idea had come From the United Kingdom, a nation whose broadcasters’ accents tended to put her in mind of great men like Piett and Tarkin. She briefly entertained the conceit that the British, with their accent and penchant for thinking imperial, may be a long lost Coruscanti colony.

For now though it was time to put her staff to work and see who, if anyone sheltered to replace. Her secretary was avast enough typist. Even if some local planetary idioms tended to slow her down.

The leader of her Interior guard seemed to have his head screwed on right, plus with his helmet off, he was quite agreeable to the eyes.  
Her female troop leader had been despatched on her first patrol, picked because of Alusa’s own analysis; the observation that these citizens were used to authoritarian women. 

Alusa picked one of the former residents wine glasses and poured a red wine. It hadn't taken long for food and beverages to be identified and catalogued. She poured herself a drink and sprawled over her nice new Divan and turn on the television.  
“Let's see what these idiots call ‘history’.”

 

* * *  
Zelena stood stock still, her hands raised in supplication, her eyes never once leaving Dorothy’s. Part of it was that she was honestly here to negotiate an alliance, another factor was that she had watched her sister claw her way out of the darkness, and reconcile with those who had most reason to hate her.

“Do you plan on having children?”

Dorothy’s gaze didn’t waver. “First, that’s none of your business, second even if we did, do you ever think either one of us would let you anywhere near something that personal?”

Zelena took a deep breath. “For what little it’s worth, I’ve been trying to exorcise that part of myself: Like Regina did.”  
Ruby growled this time, “Yes, because your sister has become such a bastion of goodness and civility.” The smirk that crawled over Dorothy’s lips were rewarding in themself.

Zelena had the good sense to look embarrassed, but even as she cast her eyes downward he could see that the crossbow didn’t wave an inch.  
“Damn it. Fine, shoot me.” She stepped up to the three women at the table and before anyone could process Zelena’s motif, she had grabbed the crossbow and placed the tip next over her heart, 

Dorothy started trying to pull the crossbow back, then her eyes narrowed as her trigger finger tightened. After a tense pause she sneered, “Nice try witch but I know about the ability to temporarily leave your heart elsewhere,

Ruby was looking at their enemy, her nose wrinkling. Reaching out carefully, she gently pushed the crossbow down. For her action,she received an irritable look from her beloved. She spoke softly. “I can hear her heartbeat, I can also smell her fear. For once, she’s genuine.If you’d fired, she’d have died

Dorothy’s expression softened a little, though the scepticism remained, She gritted her teeth and carefully removed the crossbow bolt. After a moment’s heavy silence, Dorothy shoved a chair towards Zelena with her foot and nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

Ruby did the speaking. “One wrong move and she’ll cut loose.” She paused, giving a falsely casual stretch “And her little dog, too.”


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

A Phantom Edit

Emma looked around, acutely aware of the tightening Imperial net. It wouldn’t take long before their names and likenesses were plastered all over news outlets. Regina and Hook had their own senses honed to feel the sense of pursuit. Mystical screening was all well and good but as Regina pointed out, sufficiently focussed individuals could pierce that veil. 

For now, they had cloaked the Jolly Roger as a modern Catamaran and as the effort had made both women very hungry, the trio had retired to a Subway diner, where Regina was checking exactly how accurate the term meatball marinara actually was. Emma was having a large pasta salad.  
As Regina smiled at Emma. the blonde looked up and said, “what?”

“Pasta again?”

“What can I say, I love Italian food.”

Regina grinned. “It doesn’t get more Italian than my name. Remind me to make everyone, even Granny, Spaghetti Bolognese when this is all over.  
Emma nodded and smiled. After a second she succumbed to temptation and smiling cheekily, said, “I’ll pass on the apple pie though.”

Regina was about to retort but instead sat bolt upright, “Make for the rear exit. Now.”

They were barely in time as red bolts shattered the window and missed them by inches. Hook grimaced as one shot glanced off what should have been his right hand, making him stumble.

The trio made it to the back alleyway, and froze as a scout walker, two squads of stormtroopers aimed their weapons. One trooper, wearing a pauldron gestured simply. “Down.” That single word was accompanied by the rising whine of the Scout walker priming its own weapon. 

There were times to use magic and times it would get someone you cared about killed. Regina reflected upon how irritating it was currently was to be in the company of two close friends and Emma was too caring to have risked the other two, even if they had been enemies in a previously established pattern.

As they all knelt, the lead Stormtrooper cuffed their hands behind their backs by the wrist, adding a shock collar to Hook and connecting the cuffs to the collar. The trooper grunted. “That should prevent them using any magic.”

Regina blinked at the term and then looked closely at the Squad leader. “Oh, just you wait. You and I are going to have a conversation about this.”

“I’m counting on it.”

 

* * *

Alusa was smiling. She’d spent a while reading up on the cultures and histories of the planet and had decided to concentrate on. Again and again, this world had built empires but one thing remained constant: When they had weakened, they had been toppled. The two that she considered most successful were the British and Germans. She could even see similarities between both of those and her own empire. If the two had worked together...

She wondered if being cut off had given her a new perspective. If that ass the case she thought, she'd need to keep a steady pace. This planet has potential. There was just something about the place that made her feel more alive, sharper. She considered just how many of the townspeople and local records referred to female leaders, rebels and queens, eventually concluding that there were good odds on this world being an old Dathomiri outpost.

She shook her head vigorously. She was an imperial officer and this world would be brought to order under the imperial flag. New perspective be damned, the old one was fine.

But then, why was the Death Star gone, with the Emperor aboard?

*

The Lambda class shuttle made the journey from New York to Storybrooke in minimal time and circled a few times so that the citizens could gather. And when the shuttle landed and its ramp lowered, so did the people’s spirits.

Surrounded by a squad of troopers with their blasters primed, Emma, Hook, and Regina were shoved forwards.Regina’s eyes locked with Granny’s and she snickered, “Well Granny, got your wish to see me in chains again.”

“Typical of you Regina, to do something as soon as we don’t want you to.”

“I’ve had Practice, Granny!” Even as a firm push made Regina stumble forwards, the two women grinned at each other. 

“No talking, move on. Stop slouching and watch your step and tone!” The Stormtrooper put a firm hand on her shoulder and pushed her onwards. The lack of force in the move confirmed Regina’s suspicion. 

Emma Swan, who had seemed to be deep in thought spoke, taking advantage of the distraction. “Here everyone now returns, yes?”

“Really Intelligent guess, horribly timed.”

The trooper shoved Emma hard this time and another pair grabbed Regina with some force. 

“Feel strong and brave shoving a bound woman captive about? That must make you feel like big men.”

“Not really, wouldn’t ever want to anyway, scum.” The Stormtrooper’s helmet distorted most things but her words were clear enough. “Besides, cow, we read the records of your time here. You don’t have a leg to stand on.

“...Touche…”

Emma Swan couldn’t stop herself from snickering, It was cut short as another trooper spoke in firm feminine tones. “Don’t know what you’re so giddy about, Saviour, it took you long enough to stop her.”

“Atten-Hut!”

*

Another squad of troopers approached, flanking the raven haired governor of Storybrooke. She smiled as soon as she saw the captives. “You had me fooled in the beginning Madame mayor. As did you, Miss Swan. But, I;ve been reading up on this place and its people and I know who you all are.”

Alusa turned and smiled knowingly at Granny. “Credit where it is due, cook, the idea to use a shapeshifter to run about, taking plans from one set of would be rebels to another was quite cunning. Nearly as cunning I dare say as letting you think, it was undetected and observing it, and using that observation to identify all troublemakers.. Like Zelena Dorothy and Ruby. And It gets better you see. As an Imperial, we are made to be able to break emotional attachment...

Alusa tapped her wrist communicator and a Tie Bomber dropped charges on the diner Alusa had stayed at. When the clouds cleared, Alusa blinked, the diner was still there. She whirled to glare at Regina, “What did you do?  
Before Regina could protest her innocence, Emma spoke. “Leave her alone, it was me. I emulated Regina some time ago. Mister Gold helped me with it, he’s fond of that diner.”

Alusa tapper her cheek with a finger, subconsciously tracing her scar. “I see. Nonetheless, I have made my point by firing upon it. I will now make a further point by having the owner shot, unless Ruby surrenders to me.”

Ruby stepped out of the crowd and Alusa’s smile deepened. This, what she was doing now, was the true imperial way. The survival of the diner had been surprising but they knew how hard she could be now. Destroying another establishment was an option, but that would be beneath her. 

“I think that I have made my point. so understand me when I say this; I am loyal to the empire, and its legacy of order. Maintain that order, obey your superiors, as I do, and enjoy a new era of prosperity.”

She smiled widely as she concluded. “Now let's go and find out what these four walking disasters have to say for themselves.”

***

Emma felt strange sat on the sofa, unbound and with food and drink laid out for her. She wore bracelets on each wrist.

Across from her, now clad in a highly complimentary, well cut dress, slightly altered, was the young pilot. Her only other affectation seemed to be the bang on the right side of her hair. In some strange way it helped with the scar.“ Miss Swan, the food and drink is fine, if I had wanted you dead, I would have ordered my troops to fire on you.”

“That's just it, why didn't you? You've read our records, know our powering our reputation, and you have us lined up like fish in a barrel.”

“Because of these.“ Alusa then picked up a sturdy box of video discs and waved them in front of her guest. “ ‘Star Wars’ the original trilogy, on remastered blu-ray. How?!”

Emma took a deep breath, this was going to be a long story. I don't know whether I should congratulate Regina on the better part of her mothering or throttle her for leaving the disc in the console…

Emma took a deep breath, “ This is going to sound very very strange..” 

And she was right, for when she finished Alusa was staring at her, almost as though she was trying to bore holes through her skull,

“I had a feeling you wouldn’t believe me, “

“I’m thinking about it.”

*

“I know how this goes.”

“Really.”

“Yes, you give me food and drink, try to convince me that you’re better for this town, or this world,than any anarchist. Then you point out how you have all the power and can kill everyone here on a whim-”

“I’ve already stated that. I expected better from you, the supposed queen bitch. Yet here you are, in my clutches.”

“Fine, Then understand this, I was the queen, the mayor, the enemy of everyone and I held them off. I became a ‘hero’ and took out everyone who underestimated me. I even found a way to come back from the dead.”

“I read about that. Emma swan too. It’s my main reason for not having you two executed. In Hook’s case, It’s just to help keep Miss Swan in line.”

Regina burst out laughing. The whole concept of a cooperative Emma Swan, when she opposed you was ludicrous to her. For all of Regina’s boasts, the saviour had been equally slippery, 

“She was quite cooperative earlier when I brought up her son’s plight in my care.”

Regina only managed to hold herself in check because she knew better, but even a false threat to her son was enough to bring her rage to the surface and she nearly went for Alusa and guards be damned. As it was, she willed herself calm and smiled sweetly at her hostess,

Alusa smiled back. “Ah, there she is, the queen. Buried under this saccharine facade but still there.”

Regina coughed and said in a low dangerous voice. “If you harm a hair or nail on my son’s head, you will wish that you had been tied to ‘the power regulator on the north tower’.”

Alusa raised an eyebrow, before casually sipping some of the wine. “I hear it in your voice and I believe you have the skill and motivation. but you forget the most important thing here, the ship above. Should I be slain, it will open fire and in twelve hours this world be nothing but a molten slag heap.”

Alusa set her glass down and leaned forwards, her chin cupped in her hands.”But I don’t want to do that, I would rather have an ally who understands me, who has trodden the path I now take, has used the same tactics, and has cowed the populace.”

Regina nodded slowly. “I do understand you.”

Alusa smiled at Regina’s comment. But she went rigid with fury at her next words.

“And that’s why I’m going to stop you.”


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

There once was an ugly duckling.

 

Emma Swan cursed. She knew she was out of her depth and she had been since this whole mess had started. Out of her depth, surrounded by enemies, and in it up to her neck. The woman who had seized control of her home was a control freak, with imperial ambition, and an attitude problem, Her shoulders started shaking and after a few seconds, she started laughing. 

The lead trooper, the one that had taken them in, and requested guard duty. “What’s so funny?”

“I’ve no weapons, no defenses, no plan. The imperials should be really scared right about now.”

The trooper shook his head, “Really mom, paraphrasing Doctor Who now?”

 

“Henry, I love you but aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?”

“Short on height, but I have really good smarts from my mom. It’s in the blood. And thanks to mom saving me from things, she got her wish. Her genes locked with mine too. You’re both mom by blood now.”

 

“Isn’t this a conversation we should be having away from these other troopers?” Emma gestured at Henry’s companions. She was answered by Henry taking off his helmet, followed by the others, two of the turning out to be Maleficent and Lily. Emma squealed happily and hugged Lily, lifting her off the floor and spinning her around. “How?”

Lily gasped and swatted Emma’s shoulder, “I hit the water hard, falling unconscious but funnily enough I can breathe water. When i woke up, I found that mom had dragged me to Ursula. She put up us up for a bit, then swam us to NYC to link up with Henry and Ursuala is fast!,”

Maleficent spoke. “Since then we’ve been running small scale scams and schemes, most of which we intended for our dear little space Fury up there discover.”

Emma blinked. “All going as planned huh?”

“No,” the older woman replied. “She’s been working them out faster than we’d expected.”

Emma frowned at the reply. It meant that the residents had more or less planned their own capture, and that they now had all the major players in… one… place. Now it made sense. She was processing the thought when an alien one intruded.

“Miss Swan, Emma, if you can hear me, I’ll be ‘requesting all your presences. It’s taken me a while to get the magic ready. Henry managed a few footnotes in his book to get a fifth column up and running.”

“I’d noticed. Alusa has me and Regina in her custody, Ruby was caught and put in a dog pound, but she burrowed out. She, Dorothy and Zelena are now missing.”

There was a sense of amusement from the other end. “Dorothy and Zelena, together? I wish I could see that in action.”

“Try to remember the that old adage, be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.And when you do, remember how much it has bitten us in the ass,”

“An excellent point, Emma, See you soon.”  
With that, the link was broken and Emma Swan started planning. It all came back to her quickly, the planning, the scheming and the hope that the woman ruling, in the house above, didn’t suddenly have the sudden urge to check beneath her.

It was at that point that the doors crashed open and Regina was thrust into the cells. Emma had just enough presence of mind to catch Regina but allow herself to stumble and crash in such a manner that the sketches in the dirt were all scuffed.

The troopers nodded at Henry, their supposed superior,not noticing the way his hand tightened on the trigger ashe saw the blood on his mother’s lip. As the troopers left, Henry helped her up, receiving a devastatingly warm smile. “I’m so very proud of you.”

“For helping you up?” Henry replied, mildly confused,

“No, for not giving into anger.”

“Ah, right, Let’s just say I had good teachers.”

“I wasn’t one of them, that’s for sure.”

“Actually, you showed me to control the most dangerous anger. Mom and nan showed me how to stay calm when hurting.”

Hook spoke for the first time in a while. “ What did you learn from me, lad?”

“How to punch someone really hard if they did need it. And how to bide my time for it,”

“And that, my motley crue, is what we need to do now. I can sense a turning tide anywhere.”

*

“Pardon me for asking my Lord, but I’m simply not sure I understood correctly, you want these three brought to you on this ship?”

Rumple cackled, “ It seems you do in fact understand perfectly captain. Now do be a good little underling and get it done instead of irking me to the point of frazzling you.”

“Frazzling, my lord?”

“To cause, to shrivel up, with burning, as in when lightning flies from my fingertips…. and engulfs you.” a spark flew form one fingetip to another

“I’ll do it immediately!”

“See, it wasn’t so hard to understand me, was it now?”

“My Lord.” Orton took his chance to leave, doing so swiftly and barking out orders.”

* * *

Alusa was troubled on several fronts. Regina had made her lose her temper. She was trying hard to figure out why she had reacted so harshly. She was an Imperial pilot, trained to a high standard of self control, even in the heat of battle.

That self discipline was what had kept her alive when she had been shot down by an X-Wing, Her craft spiralling crazily, flames licking at her flight suit as she entered atmosphere, she had guided her doomed craft into shallow-ish water and bailed out. But not before fire had partially melted her helmet to her face. 

Screaming in pain, she’d ripped it away and then flung herself into the water, quickly dousing the flames. She’d been fortunate that the flames had missed her left eye and her obvious attention to duty had caused her stock to rise amongst her colleagues.

So what the hell had happened? Regina had taunted her and when she’d claimed that no matter what Alusa did, there would always be chaos and resistance and that Regina herself had become enlightened about it, and that tyrants always came to a bad end, Alusa had backhanded the former evil queen hard enough to split her lip and send her sprawling.

It had being even more infuriating when her captive had smiled at her, and when Alusa came dangerously close to snapping, drawing and priming her blaster in one motion, Regina had quietly stated, “ Gotcha.” 

*

Emma helped Regina to her feet and dabbed at the wound. “ I see you got under her skin.”

“Yes I compared her to myself.”

“I can see why would piss her off.”

“Hah, very funny, Emm- ow. Don’t make me laugh.”

“A few years ago, you would have take umbrage at that that comment. You’re quite different.”

“We noticed that when my former self attacked.”

“No I mean, compared to the you of two years ago.”

Regina looked at her friend and with an exaggerated motion, put two fingers in her mouth and pretended to vomit. Then she looked at Emma and said drily, “Sorry, But it seems I have the onset of diabetes.”

“Too much time in the presence of our son huh? Not that you’d ever change it.”

“Touche, Miss Swan.”


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Rogues

The shuttle took off with its five prisoners aboard, The atmosphere was tense as Alusa ordered the shuttle back to the Indomitable, and she smiled at the disappearance of her main irritants. The three remaining problems could be dealt with properly now and she knew exactly how to lure them out again if she had to.

The reason she wasn’t too bothered by their continued liberty was that she had read enough about this place to know that chasing them down was more trouble than it was worth. She’d grown to enjoy her privilege here and it was far preferable to being shot at by some jumped up anarchist. Besides, from what she’d read, it was far more likely that they would launch some screwball rescue attempt.

*

At the docks, three fractious women were clambering out of Hook’s special smuggling apartments. Although the ship had a few such compartments, Ruby and Dorothy had managed to fit into one together. Zelena looked at her reluctant allies and just snorted, rolling her eyes.  
Dorothy crossed her arms and asked irritably, “What?”

“Don’t you two think about anything else?”

Ruby stepped right up to Zelena, retorting, “Throwing you overboard mostly.”

“Oh, how droll. Now can someone get this walking carpet out of my way?”

Ruby was already short on patience and Zelena was, without a doubt at the top of her most detested list. The only person who detested her more was Dorothy herself. She found herself starting to shift, only halting when her beloved’s hand settled gently on her shoulder, accompanied by the softly murmured words.”Not worth it, and irritatingly enough, we need her.”

“So what’s the plan?” Dorothy asked Zelena.

“Well,” Zelena said, “Regina, Emma and Hook arranged to get themselves captured, and made it seem like they didn’t want to be. Now, before you ask why didn’t they act earlier, there’s the matter of that rather large space dreadnaught, so Rumplestiltskin went up to sort of take over.”

“And then order them to leave?” Dorothy asked

“Not a possibility, The power of story was interfering.”

“Not a good sign.”

“For once Dorothy, we are in complete agreement.”

“What an annoying development."

Zelena arched an eyebrow. "The Dreadnaught of us agreeing?"

"Yes," Said Dorothy. "Continue.”

“Well, once aboard Emma and Regina will be taken to Gold-”

“So, we’re off to see the Wizard,” quipped Dorothy.

“Oh, if only you had a brain,” Zelena quipped in response.  
Dorothy could say anything in response, Ruby nodded sadly, “Sorry sweetie, But I have to agree with her after that bad a joke..”

Five minutes later, Dorothy was left wondering if anyone in StoryBrooke was sane, never mind having brains. The idea of flying the Jolly Roger up to exfiltrate their colleagues, in a wooden sailing ship, whilst possibly under fire from a large spaceship did not appeal to her. Still, she understood the reason for holding off for as long as they had. If the ship had simply turned out to be the advance guard of an an invading fleet, then they would been annihilated.

So, with herself at the Helm, Ruby scanning for incoming threats, and Zelena ready to shield the with spells and counter attack, the Jolly Roger, slowly made her way out to sea and from there, now cloaked by magic, began her ascent.

* * *

Rumplestiltskin stood with a cheery smile next to the ramrod straight Captain Orton. Gld had perused pretty much of all the ship’s records now and knew that a properly coordinated assault could have taken the ship down. The casualties though would have been obscenely high.   
Normal StoryBrooke (quite the oxymoron there) attack plans would have most likely backfired too, considering just how many personnel there were aboard. 

Removing Orton would probably have resulted in a power struggle and an exodus of Imperials to Earth, taking forces and technology with them.

He giggled, causing Orton to stiffen his stance further (which Gold honestly found impressive) but the Giggle was because Gold had just realised that the plan used by his associates was the most appropriate one for the situation.

Landing klaxons brought his attention back to the present and the incoming Shuttle. Cocking his head, he said to Orton, “We remove the only real resistance, I get to have some fun interrogating them all, and our little Alusa gets to offload her main distractions.”

“Yes, My Lord.” 

*

The shuttle ramp descended, accompanied by the slow whine of hydraulics. Standing, shackled by the hands and wearing shock collars, were the two mystics, Regina Mills and Emma Swan. Their pirate pet was similarly hindered, although Orton did note with some irritation that the man was almost casually studying the vessel he was now on. A Stormtrooper shoved the man though and improved Orton's mood. 

He watched as the prisoners scanned their surroundings, noting the the fighters and armoured vehicles he had under his command. The dark haired woman blanched even as the blonde shook a little.

It was almost worth the irritation they'd caused to see the looks on their faces now and, oh- they werere choking… Orton gave a sideways look to his lordship, confirming his first suspicion. 

Gold smiled and then released the two women. Hook was released from the chokehold a few seconds later. “Bring them all to my chambers!”  
Ortan snapped his fingers and barked the order, “You heard him, move out.”

* * *

In his secured chambers, Gold stood, with only the prisoners and the detachment of Stormtroopers that had come with the shuttle. The only exception to that was Orton himself. Gold cackled maniacally as he looked at the man. After a few seconds, Regina joined in. Emma and Killian smiled too smiles widening as Gold giggled and snapped his fingers. 

All shackles clattered to the ground and the Stormtrooper escort aimed their weapons, -at Ortan. He glanced around, disbelieving before grudgingly raising his arms. He glared at Gold and asked. “At least tell me who you really are?”

Gold nodded and then waggled his fingers. He shimmered and returned to his usual appearance of a mature shopkeeper. “I am Mister Gold, this is my onetime protege and nemesis, Regina, who is now family.”

Orton gave asour laugh. “At least that explains how you managed to act like enemies.”

Gold and Regina both gave a short nod. Then Gold continued. “Emma there is the biological mother of my Grandson, Henry. who, as you can see is currently in charge of squad of Stormtroopers, He was adopted by Regina. So they’re both his mother.”

Ortan carefully motioned toward Hook. “And him?”  
Gold sighed theatrically. “A father figure to Henry and whilst it pains me to admit it, he is doing a good job.”

“How do you think I feel, you old crocodile?”

"High five, Captain?"

"Git."

Emma Swan chuckled at the exchange, before waggling her own fingers and locking all comm systems, especially the ones. She rose and stared into Orton's eyes and said, “Time to make a deal dearie.”

“I’d rather die than deal with anarchist scum.”

Emma glanced at Regina, remembering similar sentiment being voiced by the deposed monarch.”I’ve heard that before. But, wouldn’t you rather get your people home?”

Ortan’s eyes flickered. Then they narrowed with suspicion. “Why would you do such a thing for us considering our recent history. This is some kind of trick, or trap.”

“Which we sprung,” said Henry.

“That you fell into,” added Gold.

“And if we wanted you dead, we’d just shoot you here and now.” Emma Added the last, inspired by a certain T.I.E Bomber pilot.

Orton sagged. Against rebels and Jedi he could have succeeded, but this group were simply too unpredictable. “I will address the crew. They deserve to hear this from me.”

“Be my guest," said Gold.  
Ortan bowed and opened his mouth to speak, and was swiftly cut off by a purple mist covering his face and muffling him.

“No you don’t.” Emma, Killian, Gold and Hook, all turned their attention to Regina who was focusing solely on the captain. “No way are you pulling one of my old stunts under my nose.”

He hit the com button and spoke. “ This is Captain Orton, from this moment on, all attention will be paid to Mister Gold.”

Henry frowned. Even though his mother had used inhibiting magic, he had a bad feeling. When the ship went to battle stations, he knew why. Somehow Orton, whilst obeying Regina’s mystical command had sent a coded message informing the crew that he was compromised. 

Even as he was thinking it, Hook had crossed the room and had hid hook ready to skewer Orton, Regina stood near, her hands crackling with lightning and everyone also knew what she was thinking. Gold too bristled with hostile magic.

It was a lucky day for Orton when Henry’s stun bolt took him in the back. 

Regina blinked and then turned and smiled at Henry, “Thank you Henry.”

“Likewise,” Added Hook, “But now we have no way of countermanding any standing orders.”

*

Orton’s adjutant had never trusted the strange Sith and resentment of him had been easy to weave into his subordinates

“Open up in there! Surrender peacefully and we’ll only send you to the spice mines of Kessel. Resist and we begin targeting major cities!”

“Sir, we have a ship coming in on an attack vector!”

“How the hell did you miss its approach?”

“It’s a sailing ship made of wood! The rest of the bridge crew will confirm that. Somehow they’ve jammed our weapons!”

“Are you able to get a visual?”

“Yes sir, Some green skinned woman in a pointy hat Is ...sailing it.”

It all clicked then for the adjutant. These were the missing rebels of storybrooke. He didn’t even begin to understand how they were doing this but he knew how to respond. “Launch ever operational fighter. Destroy that ship!”

“Yes sir!”

The Pilots scrambled to their fighters and their engines whined to full power. In less than a minute over a hundred fighters had launched.

*

Trapped where they were Regina and Hook gave each other a look. Neither could ever have missed the reference to Zelena and the Jolly Roger. 

“What are they doing up here?” it was telling about life in Storybrooke that no one asked ‘how’.

“I think they’re running interference,” Henry said.

“So they’re up here to help us?”

“I’ll contact Zelena and find out.” Gold closed his eyes to concentrate even as the sides of the door began to glow red and heat up dangerously.

“They’re coming through…” Emma swallowed as the imperials began cutting their way through.”

“I hear you Miss Swan. I’ll.. wait, Dorothy, is that you? You're flying the ship?”

"And if I say so myself, doing a good job. How are you all doing?"

"The same as usual."

"That bad huh?"

"If you can home in on me, we can transport off this ship and run for home."

"That would leave us at square one, with that ship hovering above our world without weaponry to char it twelve times over."

"It would, but with Zelena, Regina Emma, myself and yourself on board we can weave our magics together and send this ship home. It did after all come here in sort of storm."

"I see what you’re getting- How many fighters!?"

"...I’d hurry if I was you."  
*  
Dorothy cursed as green bolts zinged past the ship, barely stopped by Zelena's defense. A grunt of effort told Dorothy that they were running out of time. She turned to Ruby, “I need you at the helm! Bring her back about as swift as you can. Our people need extracting.”

Ruby opened her mouth to argue but she found she couldn’t. “Go get them, would you believe I don’t have it in me to leave any of them behind now?”

Dorothy hand over the wheel to her beloved, and with a quick nod to indicate Zelena, said, “I think I’m beginning to understand.” and then with three taps of her heels, she was gone.

*

The red glow was nearly three quarters through when a swirl of red smoke coalesced into a familiar Kansas Farm girl.

As she appeared, Henry clicked his fingers.”Of course!”

“What?” said Regina.

“It can wait,” said Gold. "We need to leave now. How many can you carry?  
"Four at a time.”

Gold winced. “Take the others I’ll barrier the door for a little longer. Rescue me on the third trip.”

Emma Swan reached for Gold, saying “No, you’ve come too fa-”, Only to crumple as a stun bolt hit her. Henry then put his gun away and stood ready. Dorothy glanced at Henry and then at Regina even whilst they all took a hold of her cape or hands. Then she swirled and they were gone.

*  
They reappeared on the decks of the Jolly Roger and as Hook relieved Ruby. Regina moved to check on her sister and deflected a few incoming shots herself. She shouted out, “It’s only a matter of time before one of these gnats   
gets a lucky shot in!"

“I hear you, Regina! Everyone hang on and someone secure Emma!”” As soon as Hook was satisfied they were ready he spun the wheel, taking his ship into a tight turn, even as Ruby made her second jaunt. 

Ruby returned swiftly with Henry and his squadmates in tow,gasping for breath. She looked at Henry’s imploring eyes and shook her head sadly. I’m out of power Henry, I barely made it back.”

*  
Rumplestiltskin held the door by magic, hoping that his extraction would come sooner rather than later. This was beginning to drain him. What was worse was that having found themselves stymied, the imperials were now cutting through the walls. 

“Become the best man you can, lose the evil part of yourself, help your former enemies, she says, be the man I glimpsed in the castle all those years ago when you let Robin Hood go. So what do I do, I foul it up for years and now, when I’m finally doing what she asked, I’m left to rot, on a starship with numerous bad guys with blasters coming for me. I never learn.”

"No, Rumplestiltskin, you don't. But you can. Let me in and I will teach you the ways of the-"

“No.” It was the only word he said to the shade of the Emperors but the conviction with which he said it surprised him. “Well, if I’m going to be hero, I’m required to be inventive, Sooo... wrap a cloak around myself and teleport myself to the Jolly Roger.” He cast his spell as the door collapsed inward. He grinned as he saw the others. With a deft wave of his fingers, he restored Emma Swan to consciousness The blonde gave Regina a nasty glare, only to look puzzled when Regana shook her head and said, “Not me... this time.”

“It was Henry,” Said Gold, making Emma blink. “But right now, Emma, Snow, Regina, Zelena, and Ruby, link hands. Captain Hook, we will be busy,so keeping us alive is now your job.”

“I’ve avoided an empire for centuries, against all odds, Hang on!”The Ship lurched in what should have been an impossible turn for a Tie fighter, much less a sailing ship never designed for flight, much less space travel. A moment later it accelerated towards the moon. Hook grinned. “I've Always wanted to sail the Sea of Tranquility.”

 

*

Aboard the Indomitable, Captain Orton was rousing, medical assistance bringing him round. He shot to his feet, face mottled with fury as he recalled the last half hour. 

His adjutant stepped between his officer and the rest of his companions and and began speaking quickly. “Sir, they transported out of here, by means unknown. They are now on board some kind of enhanced sailing ship and I’ve despatched all operational fighters. Shall I commence planetary bombardment?”

“No, it’s pointless. Give Alusa the order to scour that town of our presence and then remove that town from existence. She has enough forces to do so.

The adjutant made the gesture and two junior officers scurried off to obey. Before he could give his next order, the ship lurched, and it did so in a familiar way.

"Hello Captain, remember me?"

"Gold, I presume."

"Well done captain. Whilst I was aboard your ship I did some research. How would you like to go home and serve the Empire where you’re supposed to?"

"What would you do such a thing for us and why should I trust you?"  
Because you are a loyal imperial captain and as for trust.. I want you gone. Screwing you over simply opens up the possibility of your remaining.

"And all I have to do is call off my Attack and you’ll send us home, is that it?"

"I knew you were smart. The other option is of course that I let the niggling force inside my head loose. I think you might recognise the name: Palpatine."

Orton began to argue but he stopped as everyone around him tensed. They could feel it. 

"Would you like to make a deal?"GOLd was smiling confidently.

"Yes. And nodded. “Order all our Ties back to the ship.”

"The adjutant frowned. “What about our plant side forces."

“I have no intention of wasting this opportunity, they’re on their own.”

*


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Thirteen

There’s no place like home

In the White House, the Imperial overseers blanched at the incoming message and sprinted out of the building. Over a thousand personnel rushed to shuttles and even Ties, of which some had accomodating pilots and others who would go to violent ends to prevent extra onboard weight.  
Craft screamed into the air, a rag tag display and the pensively watching world realised that they were free. 

In orbit near the moon, Ties craft streamed back to their ship even as senior helmsman Tyneham directed navigational details.

*

Shuttle Fenex was coming in fast, her sweating pilot hoping that he had enough time to dock before the Indomitable jumped for home. And they were only the head of the dozens of craft all vying for docking space. The Ties to some degree had it easy a they had smaller uncontested apertures for their return flight  
Greion Bledrem breathed a deep sigh of relief as he cleared the atmospheric shield. They’d made it and by the vibration in the air, with minutes to spare.

*

Alusa growled in frustration as she rode the primitive road speeder as fast as she could toward her Bomber. She;d heard someone shout. “Hey, she’s stealing Augustus’ bike!”

Her people hadn’t even bothered to inform her, they’d just run for it. Only long years of experience of recognising take offs had forewarned her. And with the shuttle gone, the only craft that could get back to the Indomitable was her bomber. So she had sprinted out of the mansion after picking up a reserve blaster and requisitioned the first vehicle she saw

Riding hard she came to where the ship was parked… just in time to see it lift off. “Traitors!” she screamed. She drew and fired her blaster in one smooth shot, She was denied her vengeance as she saw it dissipate harmlessly against the very same shields that had kept her alive for so many years.

*

Hook brought his ship around, tasting the air, testing to see that it hadn’t gone stale. He took particular note that neither the small ships no the big one were attacking his anymore.

“I don’t know how the Old crocodile managed it but he’s bought us time, so I suggest that whatever he was suggested, you ladies get to it.   
Dorothy shook her head, “We can’t. Gold was an integral part of this and I’m exhausted.”

“You were exhausted when you went up against me, time and time again, but you always found strength from somewhere. Maybe the power of story helped?”

“Henry snapped his fingers. “Of course. It's the old story of an orphaned adopted farmb- girl, like Superman and Luke. The power is in your origin, not the slippers or the wand of oz.”

Zelena took a deep breath and grasped Dorothy’s hand, “We can conjure up a storm together… if you’ll trust me.”

Dorothy swallowed, then tightened her own grip. “Together then… there’s no place like home… there’s no place like home…”

“There’s no place like home…” Zelena echoed.

Regina flung her own arms up, weaving the connection between Earth space and Imperial space, blinking as she saw the Imperial armada on the other side, amassed over a city teeming with buildings that made New York look like an ant hill

*

Captain Orton gasped as a swirling tunnel expanded to a size a Star Destroyer could fit through. But before he could say anything, his adjutant bellowed into the coms, “All Forward! Give it everything we’ve got!”

All hands rushed to obey and the adjutant turned to Orton. “Sir! Coruscant ahead!”

***

 

Many of the Imperial ships made it back but others were chased down in a atmosphere by the vengeful inhabitants and their overwhelming number of fighter planes, now free to act the world putting aside its grievances long enough to chase away the interlopers.

In Storybrooke, Alusa Ruyyal returned to the mansion and activated its defenses, waiting with a few other stragglers to perform their final duty. Looking at each of them she saluted and said “For the Empire.”

“For the Empire!” They chorused back.

Gold smiled, "See, captain, I keep my deals. My companions opened this portal on our end and I linked it to here. The portal will fade within five minutes but that’s enough for any remaining craft to make it through. Oh and just to be clear, The portal is one way so as far as your people in this galaxy are concerned."

Orton blinked, this was more merciful than he would have been were the situation reversed. Maybe he would return to Earth one day, at the head of a diplomatic armada. For now though there was much to be done.

*

Gold began to teleport himself home but his fingers froze in mid gesture even as a malevolent presence made itself known to him once more, trying to exert control and force Gold from his own body.

'Palpatine!

'Ah you remember me, Good. Then you know your struggle is futile.'

'Your faith in your power is your mistake. My friends will find a way to assist me.'

Not through a closed portal… Rumple found himself starting to close the portal and eyes widened as Palpatine edged closer to victory, his grating laugh echoing through Gold’s mind…

*

“Sir! All instruments indicate imminent collapse of the portal!”

“Flank speed, now!”

“Yes, Sir!”

The Indomitable lurched for home.

*

Gold grimaced under the ferocious mental assault as the Emperor grew ever closer to victory. Then Gold snarled and hurled himself into the portal with what strength he had left, throwing out one last message to the Jolly Roger.

'Get my family home… Killian.;

*

James Killian Hook blinked as he received the message and spun the wheel. With Gold lost to the ether the spell sustaining the Jolly Roger was decaying. “Regina, take us home!”

Henry glanced at him. “We can’t leave grandpa behind.”

“He gave the order. He said he had to stop the emperor from possessing him.” Killian spun the wheel but the maelstrom obscured Earth and he pursed his lips. He breathed easier when Ruby pointed and said, “That way.”

A few minutes later, The Jolly Roger whistled past two RAF jets. 

The RAF pilots radioed each other fto confirm to each other that that had just happened. Ground control had a busy day of it as they took multiple confirmations.

“Ground control to all, is the ship making any hostile move?"

“Negative,”

“Copy that, disengage and return to base.”

“Copy. homeward bound.”

*

The Indomitable dropped out of emergency speed, finding herself suddenly the object of attention of Coruscant’s Star Destroyers and planetary defenses. Two Interdictor cruisers powered up and in short order had the incoming ship held fast.

Orton responded to the incoming hail and gave the order to comply with every directive given by the other captains.  
Welcome home Indomitable, he thought.

 

* * *

The Jolly Roger landed in the harbour of Storybrooke with a booming ‘splunsh’. As Hook slumped over the wheel, the women aboard dropped to one knee, exhausted, except Ruby who went to support Dorothy and help her into a seated position. After she was sure the other was okay, she smiled and with a curt nod assisted Zelena. 

Regina treated exhaustion as personal attack and rose as though she was showing gravity who was in charge. Emma on the other hand just lay there, regaining her strength. It seemed so peaceful, just the crash of waves against the boats and the docks, a peace that was shattered when Granny drove up to them, saying, 

"“They’ve barricaded themselves in the mansion. They plan to go out fighting!”

Regina snarled. “I can grant that request…”

Emma Sat bolt upright, he usual irritating trick of finding strength when it was least convenient for her plans. She spoke quickly. “No, Regina, we’re not killing anyone, we’ve avoided causing fatalities so far. Do we really have to start now?”

“MIss Swan, do you really believe we can avoid it?”

“I have to hope!”

“Of course you do, you take after your mother.”

Henry looked at them and smiled. “So do I, both of them. I’ve been tuning into their frequencies since re-entry and know how to jam their blasters.”

*

Alusa hurled her now useless blaster against the wall,cursing as she and her imperial cadre were all rendered powerless. To make things worse,there was purple smoke appearing in the middle of the main room.

“It;s your lucky day,” Regina growled, “My son and his mother have convinced me not to smear you across Storybrooke. And believe me after what you people have-” Regina paused long to transport the supposedly sneaky man behind her into the swimming pool where Henry waved his own fully functional blaster and Ruby bared her teeth. The man wisely trod water.

*

Belle and Gideon stood with the rest, having travelled in just for the Memorial, baby Gideon asleep in his mother’s arms. They all looked as Regina stepped up to give the speech.

“He finally got it right. After all his setbacks and mistakes he did it. He became a hero and it isn’t easy. Especially the part where you have to forgive your worst enemy. And trust me, he and I knew who was that in the end; ourselves.”

Regina gave way to Emma who said, “I butted heads with him, in the end nearly as much as I did with Regina, but our shared family was a lifeline to him. Eventually, after many missteps, we came together properly and fought off evil. Hook?”  
“I stopped hating his guts in the end thanks to Henry and he did the same. Next.”

Henry laid down a little rose on the memorial stone they’d laid down for Rumple.

* * *

“There you go, Emma, alive and mostly unharmed.” Regina motioned towards the scowling woman in the police cell who was now wearing simple clothes. Any imperial technology was now stored in the evidence lockers. The two of them had made their way there shortly after the service, making sure that their prisoner remained secure in the custody of Grumpy and the dwarves.

Emma Swan gave Alusa a good long look and sighed.Turning to Regina, she said, “You force choked her, didn’t you?”

Alusa snorted, rubbing her throat “I may be your prisoner, but your people barely resisted one damaged and understaffed ship. Your world is a pathetic little backwater.” She smiled when she saw the darkening expressions on both women’s faces. 

“Yep.” A new annoying cheerful voice cut through the tension as Henry strode in, now in his normal clothes, “A backwater planet, like Tattooine, or the fourth moon of Endor. You have to admit, we have better sanitation than the Ewoks.”

Alusa looked at this young man and purred. “I suppose it’s not all bad here and you know I already look good in leather.”

“Sorry, I’m engaged.”

“Lucky girl. But just get to the point of what you intend to do with me?”

“Your people are gone, the fight is over and once you’ve served your time, we’ll release you.”

Regina smiled. “And all that time, you’ll get to spend with Henry or his mother or her mother, who will sit and talk with you, guiding you to a newer brighter path.”

Alusa smiled tightly. Regina smiled back equally tightly; if anyone understood how this woman worked, it was her.


End file.
